by Jeff Pelletier

Category Archives: Fluid.app

Are you the type of web surfer who has tons of tabs open all the time? Do you get frustrated when one web page causes all your other tabs to crash, or even just slows your productivity when you install a plugin and have to restart your browser?

How many of the tabs that you typically keep open all day are web apps? How many of them do you frequently revisit or refresh, constantly checking their status?

If you can identify with any of the questions above (and you have a Mac), get ready to experience a revolution. Fluid.app allows you to insert any web app URL, give it a title and icon, and voila, you’ve got an application (or SSB: Site Specific Browser) running like an application in OS X.

You can also convert your SSB into a MenuExtra SSB, which exists only as an icon in your OS X Status Bar:

Fluid.app is based on Safari’s Webkit rendering engine, and all the SSB’s you create are true Cocoa OS X applications.

Once the coolness factor wears off, you may start to realize what this all means. People have been talking for years about how once web apps get to the point where they’re as robust as desktop apps, we’d see a major paradigm shift in the way people use computers. With this single application, you are now able to convert any web app you use into a desktop app.

While web apps still have a ways to go before they truly offer the same functionality as desktop apps, this is the first major move in that direction.

Grab Fluid.app today. Its changed the way I use my Mac in less than 24 hours since I got it.